The physics & chemistry of a reso head?

So true, how many times has anyone just changed the top heads only to complain about how flat the drum sounds after a short while.

Not me....

I listen carefully before changing out the batters and that's where I hear the important differences. No difference with the bottoms to my ear before or after. Several player to player variables in the mix as we so well covered to say will ALL experience the same thing and with how resos will or won't perform over a longer period of time for all of us.

Have to use your own ears, experience, tuning methods and individual touch on the instrument on that subject. Speaking of which with the exception of the snare side which recieves the high tension my bottom resos are just snug enough to produce a nice clear loose but non-frapping pitch.... not very tight folks. Not much stress on these heads with this way and method of tuning. I don't crank or choke the snares really hard either against the snare side head as already covered....again longer shelf life.

As the old saying goes "your individual mileage may vary".

Spent you money wisely based on your own experience........
 
Thank you, Andy for addressing the science of the matter!! The erosion of tone from the constant flexing and de-flexing (?) of the head and the resulting deformation seems to be the cause it seems...right? Makes sense..


This reso-head wear business falls under that massive 'sound is subjective' umbrella.

First off you should be maintaining your reso heads no matter where you live, they love a good wipe with an AMOR ALL type product, you could even spray them with whatever lube you use... though that's usually stinky and needs a good wipe off.

Let the AMOR ALL soak in then wipe, It'll rejuvenate the reso's like a miracle. There's negative incentive for head manufactures to market a head/mylar rejuvenating product like AMOR ALL, but the stuff works. Wipe your batters once in awhile with it too, don't go overboard, a little goes a long way.

Maintenance in check, a naturally stretched reso head may be more desireble to some, especially on toms. My MAPLE CUSTOM set from 96' has the original YAMAHA reso's on, took them off once, then decided I like the sound of them better than new reso's. They do get maintained per above, to me they sound like keep getting better with age.

So depending on what you want to hear, reso's can in most instances last a very long time. Head manufactures don't want to open the 'maintenance door' for obvious reasons and their sales people will preach changing every 3000 miles, IMO its hype.
 
I have never noticed my resos to loose their sound either.
I only change them every few years or so just for the heck of it.
The same goes for my snare resos.
I tune my tom resos at about medium tension.
My snare resos are tight but not super tight.
I very seldom have to re tune them.
They hold tune well.
 
I have never noticed my resos to loose their sound either.
I only change them every few years or so just for the heck of it.
The same goes for my snare resos.
I tune my tom resos at about medium tension.
My snare resos are tight but not super tight.
I very seldom have to re tune them.
They hold tune well.

I must really picky then. Sorry everybody!
 
I have an anecdote for this one that came to mind yesterday. One of my students blew through the resonant head on his tom. He plays in a metal band and totally destroyed the resonant head while rehearsing. The batter head was fine. So those heads do take a pounding.
 
Hey thats ok. We all stick to the expiry date on the milk carton, dont we? It always lasts a good week more at least.

( woops, did I just use a milk analogy??!!)

...

That's okay. I was going to use a brake analogy. I've been hearing this squeak for about three weeks now and finally did my brakes this weekend, thinking to myself all that I had let it go to long and may have damaged the rotor. No problems, as it turns out it was the wheel bearings making that noise. Better to get the brakes done before the winter anyway. I don't know the connection; but if reader finds one, good on ya.

Actually, the analogy works if you think front brakes, rear brakes. the front has to be done every 20,000 miles; but the rears last a whole lot longer. They still wear out though.
 
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I have an anecdote for this one that came to mind yesterday. One of my students blew through the resonant head on his tom. He plays in a metal band and totally destroyed the resonant head while rehearsing. The batter head was fine. So those heads do take a pounding.
Well noted, and offers real (if not extreme) evidence that reso heads do wear. It's not a maybe, it's a fact, as per my original technical explanation. Of course, the level of wear is almost exclusively related to length of service & severity of use. At one end of the scale, an uber hitting player who'll go through heads in days, the other end of the scale, a light jazz artist who can make batters last 10 years plus. Most fall in the middle band somewhere. Changing resos after x amount of batter changes is as good a guide as you'll get as wear should be proportional. I change every 3 times ish, but sometimes I'll sense I'm not getting the full sonic benefit of a new batter head, so I'll change out both.

It's no good pretending that resos don't wear because they don't get hit. Hitting is only part of the degradation process.
 
It's no good pretending that resos don't wear because they don't get hit. Hitting is only part of the degradation process.

Yeah, but how much? 50%? 90%? What is the measurable difference in damage from a drum that is struck with a stick, vs one that is being "struck" much more gently by air pressure.

I play both low-to-mid volume funk and very hard-hitting rock music, and I almost never change my resos. I have some Evans heads that I bought almost 4 yrs. ago that I've used on several different kits. I've bought many new heads since, but I'll throw those Evans on every now-and-then...and I don't notice any degradation of quality, compared to the new heads. I live in a very dry, hot climate and have had those heads stored in a shed in the backyard, in the summer.

If they're aging or wearing out, I just can't hear it. All chemistry and physics aside...they seem to be much more resilient than some folks here are suggesting. Just my opinion.
 
Yeah, but how much? 50%? 90%? What is the measurable difference in damage from a drum that is struck with a stick, vs one that is being "struck" much more gently by air pressure.

I play both low-to-mid volume funk and very hard-hitting rock music, and I almost never change my resos. I have some Evans heads that I bought almost 4 yrs. ago that I've used on several different kits. I've bought many new heads since, but I'll throw those Evans on every now-and-then...and I don't notice any degradation of quality, compared to the new heads. I live in a very dry, hot climate and have had those heads stored in a shed in the backyard, in the summer.

If they're aging or wearing out, I just can't hear it. All chemistry and physics aside...they seem to be much more resilient than some folks here are suggesting. Just my opinion.
I've never prescribed degradation rates, just described the mechanisms at play. The OP suggestion was that there was no organic degradation and little mechanical damage. I offered facts to suggest otherwise.

I have no data to support deflection ratio between batter & reso, although I suspect a mean figure would be in the region of 70% over the resonant cycle (assuming they're tuned to the same pitch). Although both batter & reso heads will suffer from a change of characteristics, most pronounced at the point of contact with the bearing edge, only the batter head suffers from impact damage. That constant impact will eventually equate to a "dishing" of the head, thus negating the beneficial resonant diaphram effect. Even that is subject to the variable of impact velocity & force. All materials have an elastic limit. Without getting too deep on this, if you hit something repeatedly substantially below it's elastic limit, it will almost never deform. If you hit something above it's elastic limit, it will deform immediately. This bit of info is important because it means that a set ratio of batter to reso head changes cannot be established. That depends on many variables, but how hard you hit, & the elastic limit of your batter head choice are key components.

All up, there is no set advice possible. Each player is different, & the number of material variables is huge. My experience in "Andyworld" is that I hear a difference when I change the reso head, & I do so typically every 3 batter changes or so. A light player may even experience an improvement in tone with the ageing of the reso head. There's a limit to that, of course, but that effect is not uncommon, especially on vintage kits with usually less than perfect bearing edges. In such circumstances, a degree of sympathetic deformation improves head to shell contact. Each to their own, but to believe that the reso head is not subject to degradation is false.
 
I just change them once a year, whether they need it or not. The batters usually get changed 2 or 3 times a year. But every holiday season, all my drums get new heads top and bottom, and all my guitars get new strings.

The old resos go in an ever growing pile of heads that is probably 5 feet high by now...
 
I just change them once a year, whether they need it or not. The batters usually get changed 2 or 3 times a year. But every holiday season, all my drums get new heads top and bottom, and all my guitars get new strings.

The old resos go in an ever growing pile of heads that is probably 5 feet high by now...

I think you could start a new thread >> what do you do (what can you do) with old heads?

target practice, flying saucer videos, snow shoes, etc.
 
I think you could start a new thread >> what do you do (what can you do) with old heads?

target practice, flying saucer videos, snow shoes, etc.

This was actually a question on our Facebook page about a week ago. We saw a wide variety of responses. We're still scratching our heads (pun intended) on this one but there were some good ideas out there.
 
I think you could start a new thread >> what do you do (what can you do) with old heads?

target practice, flying saucer videos, snow shoes, etc.

I sell 'em on Craigslist and try to at least recover a few bucks out of them, if I can. There's always a market for used heads - usually folks on a tighter budget than I am, looking to squeeze a little more utility out of the heads I'm no longer interested in hanging onto.
 
I sell 'em on Craigslist and try to at least recover a few bucks out of them, if I can. There's always a market for used heads - usually folks on a tighter budget than I am, looking to squeeze a little more utility out of the heads I'm no longer interested in hanging onto.

I've actually never heard of anyone doing that before. Do you have much luck on a consistent basis?
 
If you are constantly mucking about with high and low tunings with the bottom heads MAYBE....

If not tune, tweak as needed and forget them. Every new kit of mine has recieved good quality resos Abe including the bass drum only ONCE and never again. Same deal for the snare side once the desired tension/sound is happening to my satisfaction. Only fly in the ointment on the snare side would be if you're cranking the snares super tight causing extra tension and stress on the head. I have the snares just tight enough to be crisp so no worries for me on that.

I'm picky as hell too about my drum sound with always doing a fair bit of recording projects with my own kits in various studio settings and groups. So after doing this with various kits with more years than I can count I would have spent the cash if I really truly believed it really made a difference..... which for me is a complete waste of funds IMO since simple physics tells me likewise. Big waste of money IMO to change them unless you're constantly doing what I first mentioned with your reso heads on a regular basis. Same applies to the snare side head.

Marketing BS for most of us is my 2 cents if that's the news on the street that has to be followed according to drum head companies {?}......

I second this. After many years and lots of tuning, it may be necessary to replace resonant heads, but I think it would have to be YEARS of playing.
 
Remember also that reso heads are much thinner than batters and they move a lot more than one would suspect whether hit with a stick or not. Although plastics bio-degrade slowly as far as land fills are concerned, they will degrade where sound is concerned. Also, even with very close attention to detail and quality control, I'm sure the thickness of the drum head varies more than we would like. I work in supply in a hospital and a lot of products come wrapped in plastic and a lot of them have expiration dates because of the deterioration of the plastic and sterility can no longer be guaranteed.
 
I have no data to support deflection ratio between batter & reso, although I suspect a mean figure would be in the region of 70% over the resonant cycle (assuming they're tuned to the same pitch). Although both batter & reso heads will suffer from a change of characteristics, most pronounced at the point of contact with the bearing edge, only the batter head suffers from impact damage.



Who breaks-in their reso heads? Arguably it could take years to do so, but then we'd have to determine what's broken-in and what's worn out.

After three songs I hear a difference in sound with new heads... so are they worn out, or just broken in? Sound is subjective, you may hear a difference, but there's no standard for better or worse.

Keep in mind the reso isn't struck with a stick, that's what stretches out batter heads, movement on the reso is very slight and the reso's ride on air, its a cushy life for bottom heads.

Mylar does stretch, but in the case of reso's its very little. If we're talking about PRE TUNED heads you'd have a stronger argument, but there's tension rods on the bottom of the drum, a 1/128 turn on the rods will effect tension/sound and reso's determined to be 'worn-out' may simply need a cleaning and a tension-tweek as tension rods are more likely to loosen long before reso mylar stretches.

After 6 months do you notice your bass drum reso getting flat? Im sure most aren't replacing their bass drums reso head(s) very often, and here's a drum that sees way more action than any of the toms.

Sound is subjective, though with proper maintenance reso heads can easily last for years, much longer than heads of same receiving no attention.

It would be in the best intere$t for head manufactures to do testing on reso heads, then they could definitively say there's X amount of measurable wear after X amount of hours, find the point where these heads don't measure up to the companies sonic standard... that would be interesting.

Speculating drummers aren't really going to boost drumhead sales.
 
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